Geology of the Entracque–Colle di Tenda area (Maritime Alps, NW Italy)

Abstract

The 1:25,000 geological map of the Entracque–Colle di Tenda area covers an area of about 130 km² in the Italian Maritime Alps, between the Gesso and Vermenagna valleys. The map area is of great relevance since the Alpine units of this region sampled a geological nodal point in the Mesozoic, at the transition between two different sedimentation domains of the Alpine Tethys European palaeomargin (the Dauphinois basin to the NW and the Provençal platform to the SE). During the Cenozoic, this palaeogeographic hinge was progressively incorporated along multiple shear zone systems developed at the southern termination of the Western Alps arc.

Keywords:

• Provençal domain
• Dauphinois domain
• Argentera Massif
• Limone–Viozene Zone
• Maritime Alps

Acknowledgements

Alessia Musso is acknowledged for sharing field work in the early phases of the research. We would like to thank the Associate Editor Claudio Riccomini, and the Referees Riccardo Bersezio, Silvio T. Hiruma, and Thomas Pingel, whose useful suggestions improved both the manuscript and the geological map.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by funds from the CNR–IGG (Unità di Torino).